


Outside Looking In

by Lgbarnecraft



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Gen, Made up names for DICE members, Not Beta Read, massive spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27019699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lgbarnecraft/pseuds/Lgbarnecraft
Summary: Kokichi was always laughter and smiles and the talk of the school along with his motley crew.But much like the peace in the world, it was all a lie.
Relationships: Oma Kokichi & DICE
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	Outside Looking In

**Author's Note:**

> “You know you can't boom with a bullshit system, and you can't fix a man when he's broke. You know you can't max if you don't pay the tax, and you can't wax the man if you choke.”  
> -Fun Lovin Criminals~”Passive/Aggression”  
> https://youtu.be/C-8xzU-PnHU

They were the ultimate class clowns. Every class you might share with them became a standup comedy, or a candid prank show, sometimes both. Their laughter was always at the expense of others who they, and many others, deemed worse than they were. Bullies, the meanest teachers, and outside of school: corrupt adults. 

It was a grand old time. And Kokichi was the leader of the group. Not the leader as in the one calling the shots, but the one who lead the scoreboard. The longest streak of operations without being caught. His friends looked up to him, just like he looked up to them. It was...

It was a lie.

The laughter and smile his friends and classmates saw was a lie. The truth was buried in a crummy suburban home, just one floor, paper thin walls, none of which could conceal the fighting, the belittling, the abuse. His mother and father were ruthless. Kokichi always had to wonder whether or not they loved eachother, they sure acted as if they despised one another. Yet, when one would threaten to leave, the other would beg them not to, even blackmail them not to.

Was their love a lie too?

Kokichi was certain of one thing, they didn’t love him. He was an accident. One they felt obligated to raise, for fear that someone may discover their failure. Kokichi would be their punching bag, their errand boy, and the keeper of all of their secrets.

He felt an obligation to them too. And for that, he would lie about the circumstances.

There was one thing they did together. When it was dinner time on Fridays, they’d put out TV trays, and whatever spat they were having would end as soon as the prime time event came on.

Danganronpa. 

His parents were like his peers, and most people really, they adored the killing game. Kokichi had done some snooping, apparently his father owned a first edition copy of the original Danganronpa games. 

How could he describe the killing game?

Well, he despised it personally.

It was all fun when it was anime and games, but the deaths featured in these new live action series were very real. Of course, he’d done his research. Team Danganronpa, a corporation formed to continue the series after the departure of series founder [NAME OMITTED] had received a mountain of controversy for that first live action season, but the world governments allowed them to continue showing real killings and executions so long as the participants were death row inmates. Eventually, with enough years of lobbying and bribing, anyone could enter the killing game looking for fame, fortune, or a public death people would talk about for years to come.

Real people died on television, editing altered any blood to become a bright and cute shade of pink (a lie to fool the ratings board?), and his parents loved this show.

Maybe they really were plotting to kill eachother? Kill him? Who knew why they loved the show so much. Maybe the truth was that it allowed them to vent their violent desires without resorting to harming or screaming at eachother. 

Or maybe that was another lie.

———

He’d somehow got permission from his parents (by way of them ignoring his question, he didn’t hear a no) to sleep over at Queen’s place with all the fellas.

Kokichi was the Ace. Despite being the youngest, he was the best of them, at least they all thought so, but he’d usually dismiss that claim.

Chihaya was Queen, she had pink hair in a bang and was cold as ice, her laugh was quiet but laughter all the same. Probably the least outcast of the group, even popular kids would ask her out. She’d reject each.

The King title belonged to Hazama. Everyone in the gang was a freshman in high school, but he was tall enough to be mistaken for a college student. That height was only added onto with his signature Afro.

Bleach Blonde Bunta was the Knave, he had some crazy styled blonde hair. He probably had the most rumors about him, how he had a criminal record, or destroyed a Bosozoku gang by himself. All of them were false. He didn’t mind.

Diamonds was Aiko, she had brown pigtails. She was a skilled hacker, many a webpage defaced with logos, memes, and protest messages were her doing. All for fun. Good luck tracing her though, proxies chained to China, Russia, and the US each would stop you from doing so.

Aonuma was Clubs. He was a big dude, but unlike Hazama, he was big horizontally. He was a musician of sorts, mainly a drummer. He could make a drumset outta two trash bins and a school desk. Loud and proud, he was almost always the diversion.

Hearts was Ritsuko, a graffiti artist with long braided hair. If you covered up one of her tags, chances are there are five more waiting around the corner. Eventually the cops stopped covering any of her tags that weren’t in essential locations.

Last but not least was Spades, Taishiro. Tai was a strategist, always the one to help Kokichi plan out the big ones. He was also an amateur film director, occasionally getting the gang together to film some kinda arthouse stuff.

They were all a couple months to a year older than him. But they were all friends by chance. The gang started with just Kokichi and Tai, and had grown with each new pal they made. Chaotic individuals seemed drawn to Kokichi, why? He didn’t really have an answer. But they were the fellas, and he loved ‘em like family. Though, they might not know that.

The night was rather uneventful. It was pretty cold out, and definitely too late to be out pulling stunts downtown. 

“Maybe we should play some games?” Suggested Aiko.

“Let’s just nab some pizza, we’ll be less bored on a full stomach!” Aonuma exclaimed.

Kokichi’s eyes wandered to the calendar. 

A Friday, prime time. His parents probably wouldn’t care if he came home, the show would placate them...

“Why don’t we watch Danganronpa? It’s on tonight. Somethin’ to do.”

Chihaya raised an eyebrow. “That show everyone at school hypes up? Where people die?”

Kokichi giggled. “Maybe it’d be good white noise! It’s like when you turn on the documentary channel to fall asleep... The garbage in the background helps you mellow out!”

That got a laugh outta most of the crew. 

“Hm... If we were all in the killing game, who’d win?” Aiko asked.

“Well I ain’t the one dyin’ first!” Bunta shouted. 

“Ugh, who caaaaaares?” Kokichi stretched. “Nobody actually PLAYS the game. The stupid bear pulls a trick on everyone, and one person falls for it, believing they have to kill in order to save themselves and everyone else. It’s all drama.”

Tai shrugged, having turned the small TV in the game room on. “Who’s to say only one of us would win? If all of us were in the game together, we could easily work together to destroy the game.” He pushed his glasses up, he always did that before making a grand plan. “It’s simple, create a murder that Monokuma can’t monitor. He places cameras all over the joint to monitor who’s where at all times, so he can log who killed who and decide the trial’s blackened.” 

The blackened. You had to kill, and then get away with it in a trial with your peers. That was how you “won” the game. Out of all 51 seasons, only two ended in an incorrect verdict. 

One time, the gimmick of the game’s secret was that the participants had created the killing game themselves as penance for horrible crimes they committed. They’d allowed the most innocent of them to kill, and then immediately voted incorrect. The guilty ones died, and the truly innocent one lived, but with the guilt that he couldn’t convince his friends that there was hope for reform and peace. 

“Firstly, that wouldn’t happen. They’d wipe our memories, remember?” Kokichi touted. His knowledge on the series was vast, he didn’t watch much TV. It was either the news, or it was Danganronpa. “And we wouldn’t be in the game together, because even if they did wipe our memories, we’d slowly get them back, and then we’d figure out we’re all friends and form an operation to win. Our way.”

“Our way?” Hazama tilted his head.

“Way I see it, winning this game our way would be like fooling an arrogant professor.” Kokichi began. “Give the bear a mystery he can’t solve, and then watch the lie of the killing game implode... If you wanna beat a liar, you gotta corner them psychologically. Make them break their own rules!” 

“Yeah, but Monokuma’s got a lot of strict rules... You’d have to execute a long term master plan to beat him.” Tai posited.

“Yeah, like we’re strangers to doing those?” Kokichi chuckled.

“Oh! It’s starting!” Ritsuko exclaimed.

Everyone got in where they could fit in, on the couch, on the side of the couch, behind the couch, on the floor in front of it.

It was the finale of season 52. The final trial. The excitement, the hope, the despair. Only 3 students remaining... Would the mastermind be exposed? Would the killing game end? Would they all escape? The whole season had been themed after a reform school instead of a standard academy for gifted students. One more gimmick in a long line of seasonal gimmicks to spice up the show’s formula. Some of these were a hit, Kokichi found the one taking place between a group of young superheroes and supervillains to be his personal favorite (though he despised it with the rest of the show, at least it wasn’t boring!), but many were misses (Killing game in Edo Era Japan? Makes no goddamn sense...) For season 52, all the students were ultimates, but all of them were outcasts or delinquents in some way. The notable protagonists were Rantaro Amami, the Ultimate Lucky Student, and Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer. 

The trial was the standard affair of accusations and rebuttals and flashbacks so far, though there was some twist about the reform school being a training test for future “Remnants of Despair” members. A recurring plot point (or plot hole) in the series. 

“The survivors of this killing game will participate in the following killing game... An Ultimate test to decide the fate of the ENTIRE WORLD!” Monokuma shouted.

Kokichi wasn’t paying much attention. None of them were, really. Yadda yadda Survivor’s Perk. Yadda yadda Junko Enoshima. 

“Ay, why do people fawn over this bitch so much?” Bunta blurted out upon seeing the Ultimate Despair herself on screen. “You know what they say, don’t stick your dick in crazy, she’s completely deranged. Yet she’s the fan favorite?”

“I dunno... Why do people watch this show? That’s what I’ve been wondering ever since I started watching...” Kokichi mumbled. Surprised at his own musing.

“You don’t like it? Then why’d you suggest we watch it?” Aonuma gave him a funny look to go along with the statement.

“It’s like... Watching a car wreck, I guess. It’s horrible, but you can’t take your eyes off of it.” Kokichi sighed. “I guess for some people, it’s morbid curiosity. We weren’t born in the generation, but in the past, stuff like this would be highly illegal. I guess the world’s changed a lot since before we were born. I guess... If we’re gonna use the show’s own symbolism against it...” He grinned, mischievous. “It’s hope for some people, or the thrill of despair for others. It can create peace through images of intense chaos.” 

“For a hater you sure sound like a big fan.” Queen laughed coolly. 

“I’m not, seriously. This show... For its fans, they’re given excitement and hope for the future through the themes and execution, no pun intended, of those themes! But...” Kokichi remembered, all the nights, the peaceful Friday nights, that would vanish with the coming of the new dawn. “It’s a lie.”

“That’s one way of lookin’ at it.” Aiko nodded. “Who’d wanna kill or be killed for TV fame anyway? Most of the actors who make it out of the killing game go down dark paths, or even go on to become actual killers!” 

Kokichi looked around at his whole crew. “Well, if I was in the game... I’d wanna ruin it. For everyone watching, and for everyone playing and conducting.” For two specific people watching, anyway. “If the peace in Danganronpa’s fanbase is a lie, I wanna reveal the truth by ruining the game, making everyone focus on something real.”

“Well said, if the world’s gonna have fun at the expense of others, why can’t we have fun at the expense of them?” Hazama nodded. 

“But I don’t know... I’m not about to go and audition. Think I’d leave you guys for this crap? It might be a huge operation... But what’s an operation without a crew?” Kokichi smiled. His friends were his peace, life was peace, not death. 

Everyone else had it wrong, everyone else was being fed lies.

———

The night went by as the killing game finished, they got some food, headed off to sleep. Kokichi awoke early in the morning, and snuck off to go home before his parents realized he hadn’t locked himself away in his room all yesterday. 

He couldn’t stop thinking, about the revelations he’d come to, about the killing game. 

About Danganronpa.

Now more than ever was this urge. It was always there with him and his gang’s endeavors: Destroy the peace that governs a horrible society. Silly practical jokes to drive people to anger had a purpose to the boy. Despite a happy-go-lucky demeanor, a lie, Kokichi wanted nothing more than to watch people who cause suffering suffer even harder. Irony was the best medicine. Maybe... If he were to hypothetically join the killing game... He could expose the lie of it all, and maybe that would reveal the truth of how his parents really felt, why they behaved the way they did...

Eventually, like a curious feline climbing a bit too high, Kokichi felt he had about 51 seasons of catching up to do... Would he miss his friends? Perhaps, but he felt that they had a right to see the truth unfold. Yet he didn’t have the heart to tell them...

A master plan, an audition, and all the anti-brainwash conditioning a 15 year old boy could take. 

This would be his magnum opus, the greatest operation.

And it would be the one truth in his sea of lies.

**Author's Note:**

> I finished V3 last night. Definitely my favorite of the trilogy, the ending had me really doing some thinking on the metagame of the series. I really wish we’d got to see everyone’s motive videos and audition tapes.
> 
> Lots of headcanon here so if shit seems ooc or against canon please don’t get too angry with me! First time writing for this game. 
> 
> I always try to think about how much Kokichi truly knew the whole truth. Personally, I’d say he knew 50%. So I headcanon that he trained himself in anti-brainwashing before his audition and acceptance into V3. When he lost his memories, he kept a very vague idea of his true self and motives, but by the third trial he seems to have made some conclusions already.


End file.
